Ashley Cole ribbed by Wills

Prince William gave Ashley Cole a ribbing over the star’s foul-mouthed Twitter rant

I’d have loved to have a kickabout here

Kate Middleton

Football Association president Wills grinned as he jokingly threatened to close the Chelsea star’s account for branding the organisation “a bunch of tw*ts”.

The 31-year-old defender looked sheepish while the Prince told him: “If you continue to be a naughty boy they’ll take your Twitter account off you!”

Cole covered his face with his hands as Wills referred to the player’s furious reaction after the FA had blasted his evidence in the John Terry race row trial.

But the pair then cracked up as the player’s England team-mates Andy Carroll, 23, and Joe Hart, 25, also started giggling.

Joker Wills made his beeline for Cole as the 30-year-old Prince and wife Kate opened the FA’s new state-of-the-art St George’s Park National Football Centre, aimed at bringing World Cup glory back to England.

The royals also met the rest of the Three Lions squad as coach Roy Hodgson’s boys trained for the first time at the mega complex in Burton-on-Trent, Staffs.

Kate, 30, also had a laugh with the players as she told Frank Lampard, 34, and 32-year-old skipper Steven Gerrard she wished she had brought her football kit.

“I’d have loved to have a kickabout here,” she said. “I should have brought my boots along. It’s brilliant!”

And the light-hearted theme continued as Wills cracked a gag about Prince Harry.

Quoting from Shakespeare play Henry V, he said: “I feel tempted to cry: ‘God for Harry, England and St George’ but I really don’t want to lower the tone by bringing my brother into it!”

Wills and Kate also tried out some of the facilities, including a push-button board to test reaction times. The Prince beat his wife by 31 points to 28.

And the pair chatted to stars of the England women’s team before looking at the hydrotherapy unit, where they met seven members of the men’s side, including Cole again, squeezed into a small pool.

William joked: “It’s quite cosy in there isn’t it? How cold is it?” Wayne Rooney, 26, said the players were thrilled to see the royal couple.

“It was a delight for all the lads to have met them,” he cooed. Hodgson agreed, adding: “We’re impressed they’ve taken so much time to come and visit us.”

St George’s, the brainchild of ex-England boss Howard Wilkinson, puts the Lions’ facilities on a par with world champs Spain.

Centre boss David Sheepshanks said: “We have a world class stage in Wembley Stadium and now a world class training centre at St George’s Park. Given time, we hope it will be a world class combination for a winning England.”